John Hagelin on Government Reform

2000 Natural Law Party Nominee for President

Government has been ineffective; fix it

BROWNE [to Hagelin]: We never solve problems through government. We haven’t solved the education problem, the drug problem, the poverty problem. We haven’t solved any of these problems through government.

HAGELIN: I agree that government has been a
bit of a hell in the past. It has been terribly ineffective, terribly invasive, but I’d rather fix it than throw it out. There are commonsense solutions that are being resisted by government because they’re bought and paid for by special interest groups.

Source: Third Party Debate on Meet the Press
, Oct 22, 2000

Role of third parties is to widen debate

If the Presidential Debate Commissions rules were in force then, Abraham Lincoln would not have qualified. Jesse Ventura would not have qualified during his successful gubernatorial run either. Furthermore, even if third parties don’t have 15%
of the vote, they serve an important function: without third parties, numerous issues would never be brought into general consciousness. Slavery would never have been an issue without third parties, nor most of the civil rights movement.

Source: NPR’s “Morning Edition” (paraphrased)
, Sep 17, 2000

Supports holistic and pragmatic approach to government

Hagelin advocates what he says is a holistic approach to government, where health care is preventive, education is innovative, agriculture is sustainable and energy is renewable. “Government has been utterly lacking in knowledge or profound principles.
Government has been ruled by those with the single skill of raising money. I have broad expertise in a very simple but profound political philosophy. Government should be what works, not what is bought and paid for by political interests.”

Source: Massie Ritsch, LA Times
, Aug 20, 2000

End special interest control by shortening election process

The election process is far too long and expensive. Elected representatives spend too much of their terms fundraising and campaigning for reelection. We have the longest campaign season, yet the lowest voter turnout, of any democracy in the world.
The exorbitant cost of campaigns favors wealthy candidates and those who receive large contributions from political action committees (PACs) and other special interest groups. Research has shown that 90% of all campaigns are won by
the candidate who spends the most. Consequently, government has become a competition for money and thus is hostage to special interests rather than responsive to the people. I will promote crucial democratic reform, including:

public sponsorship of election campaigns,

elimination of PACs and ‘soft money,’ and

prevention of lobbying by former public servants on behalf of domestic and foreign interests.

Source: www.Hagelin.org, ‘What Hagelin will do’
, Apr 1, 2000

Campaign finance: Public funding; ban PACs & soft money

Hagelin supports the following statements regarding campaign finance:

Public taxpayer funding for congressional candidates who comply with campaign spending limits

Require unions to get members’ permission before using
union dues for political advocacy.

Require Congressional candidates to raise over half of their campaign money from their home state.

Hagelin says he would “support long-overdue election and campaign reforms to ensure equal access to the
ballot, the media, and the public for all qualified candidates, and a shift toward public sponsorship of campaigns in order to reduce the undue influence of special interest money on election outcomes.”

Third parties with ballot access still barred from debates

If you are a third party, even with a broad base of support, it takes probably eighty percent of your efforts, of your creativity just to get on the ballot. Once you are on the ballot, you are thrown off the debates. Perot and I were thrown off the
debates a week prior to those debates in 1996, and we are suing the Federal government due to the manner in which that was done. We are going to win that case, and when we do win that case, that is going to open up the process to make it at least fair.

Source: Jim Bohannon Show, Westwood One radio
, Nov 16, 1999

Congressional votes go to PACs that contribute the most

The interests of our government have to a large extent been sold. People need to realize the extent to which PAC contributions, for example, sway political decisions. Tracing the previous votes of the US Congress
for the past several years shows that in every case these decisions that affect our lives always go in the direction of the people, the corporations, the PACs that contribute the most.

Source: Washington Journal, C-SPAN
, Sep 5, 1999

Those currently in power arrange permanent power

We have the least democratic democracy in the world. It’s the only democracy in which certain powers have legislated themselves into permanent victory, where we’re not actually voting on a level playing field.

Source: Washington Journal, C-SPAN
, Sep 5, 1999

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